I was getting ready to enter the final stages of the more/less restore process—down to bondo and sanding the entire body after replacing a lot of sheet metal—and so I started it up and moved it back to take off grill and front bumper to prepare for that process—and repair the deflector on the front, which needed a little metal work.

I noticed a small drop off the rear manual trans bell housing. Odd. Sure enough coolant. To say this did not cause me a moment of horror is an understatement. It has been a month solid of working every day on the rust.

I bought the truck because the motor has been rebuilt. New brakes, tires, etc. It runs, and it especially runs since I put a Holley on it. The body work, I knew would be the biggest time consuming effort. At any rate, I crawled under it today to decipher where, and prayed it was not something like a head.

Long story short: above the starter there is a freeze plug. I saw a tad bit of yellow dripping off the oil pan lip where a bolt screwed in. Above that is a freeze plug. I cleaned it all off, and went to the hardware store to buy bolts—the bed is a wreck and had to cut off all the bolts. I crawled back under, and sure enough, there is a pin hole leak that seeps when not running, but drips a lot more when it runs. The leak falls off the oil pan, between the starter and the engine, and hits the exhaust crossover on the pass side. This is why it is nearly unrecognizable…most of it burns off until it cools. The pic I managed to get is after 2 hours of sitting and not running. You can see how slow of a leak it is when not running.

I believe that the truck has had this problem since before I purchased it. Who rebuilds a motor, and does not replace all the freeze plugs?

I will be heading to the auto store for a brass plug tomorrow. After that, remove the starter and tap the plug with a punch on one end to get it to pivot so I can grab it with pliers and install the new brass one after cleaning the area (permatex #1 for the seal assist on install). Any other advice is welcome!

Pic follows:

 

Hopefully the other ones are ok. I had a engine that I had one let go, then another, then another. I ended up pulling the engine to replace them all. I am glad I did, it had one hidden behind the bellhousing that was leaking. It was a 2.9 v6.

 

Got the starter and plug out today. Brass plug comes in tomorrow morning.

As you can see there is rust and sludge behind the plug. I dug out maybe a small handful of rust. Near as I can tell the inside wall looks good. Perhaps this was from before the radiator was changed during rebuild? But, again, why not flush the block!?! The temp gauge does not work. I am not sure if it is that copper dash electrical circuit failure or not. May change out the temp sensor and trace the wire. The charge gauge on the dash does not work either. Oil gauge is hooked up separately and works—mounted under dash. I do NOT like not having a temp gauge.

Any thoughts welcome.

Sanding the cab continues. There’s a lot of rust and holes around the windshield pass side. This will take some attention and sheet metal work to restore the post.

Hope to be ready to shoot it with primer in a week or so.

 

You can drain the radiator, pull the lower hose off, and then get a garden hose and try to flush the block out to see how much gook comes out. On the engine I had problems with, it was so clogged full of rust the radiator drain was clogged. I cleaned and flushed it out, and then later on I did not have any heat. I drained the radiator again and it was full of junk, and flushed the heater core, it was clogged also. This time I just put pure water in it, drove it, and flushed it again, full of junk. Did this about 2 more times and finally got it cleaned out, and that's when most all the freeze plugs started leaking.

 

I checked the others, and felt behind the motor mount on the one's I could not see--the paint still clings to them and they are smooth....But, as many have said, when one goes, they all go. Ugh.

 

I would pull them all and before installing the new ones di like you did and pull out as much of the junk you can.
Then put on your bathing suit and flush the block out at each hole and lower hose off.

That block was not rebuilt the right way or you would not have all that rust or the bad plug.
BTW if that rush is left in there it keeps the coolant from picking up the heat from the block and will over heat.

I have a low mileage motor that has 3 motor & 1 head plug that rested out. It is full of mud i cant flush out and it over heats in no time.
New radiator water pump heater core too still over heats.
Dave ----
Use a metal coat hanger to poke the mud when flushing

 

Hi @FuzzFace2 ,

I agree the plugs need replaced all, and the block flushed. I am not in a position to do that yet as I am in the middle of the body work. BUT, I found a guy who is quite reputable who works on older cars and restores them, and he said the same thing you did. When I am done with the body, I will take it to him because, unless I am wrong, there's 2 plugs covered by the bell housing and the other two are behind the motor mounts. The only other easy access plug is near the driver side exhaust.

I do not have the facilities to get at all of them at this time. I do not drive it because of the work I am doing on it, but it was driven a lot by the previous owner--daily. She runs fairly well, which, is rather shocking given what I found.

On this plug, I did actually bring in a garden hose and rinsed the insides there, brushed it, ran a wire around, until it ran clear at that spot. Took 12 times before it did. I then replaced with a brass plug.

 

Ok I just wanted you to know what you will be up against if not cleaned out.
I also hear you on not having the time or equipment to do the job and needed to farm it out.

I was lucky I have a 300 six and all of them are on 1 side under & behind the manifolds and because I had them off to replace the gaskets it came off easily.
That is when I found 1 it had one of them rubber temp plugs in a hole beside the leaking one I pulled everything apart for LOL yes I replaced them all.

The other motor that has a bunch of rubber plugs in and is full of mud, will not flush out, I cant drive more than maybe 10 miles before it over heats.
A buddy had the same issues with a used motor he dropped in a Jeep. He wound up pulling it to rebuild and that is when he found all the mud in the motor that flushing would not remove.
So just watch the temp if you start driving it.
Good luck on the body work and the freeze plugs
Dave ----